Kibbles ‘n’ Bits, 3/25/09

§ Accused “comic book killer” Michael George may be released from prison as he awaits a retrial. George was convicted of killing his wife nearly 20 years ago, but the verdict was overturned on appeal.

§ Comics historian Peter Sanderson recently appeared on WNET’s Sunday Arts program to talk about MoCCA’s WATCHMEN exhibit, which he curated. You can watch the video above, but beware, it made our computer do very strange things.

§ Kiel Phegley interviews Guy Davis as his GN for Les Humanoïdes is serialized in the US.

Kiel Phegley: When the new editions of Humanoids stuff was announced, I was pretty astonished looking over the list to see how many American artists had worked on major projects for them that readers here seemed to be unaware of. In terms of your work on Zombies, where did the comics fall in terms of the other work you’ve done that we have seen?

Guy Davis: Let’s see. When did I start doing the Zombie’s stuff? I think Humanoids started with it around 2004. Originally, it was done for Humanoids in the U.S. when they had Metal Hurlant magazine over here, and then when they stopped publishing that magazine in the US, we started doing Zombies as its own book in France, with the fourth volume coming out just last year… and I think when Zombies started first coming out is also when B.P.R.D. was really starting to get going, and I’d just shift between the two. And for Zombies, it was only in eight-page increments at the start and easier to fit that in with other deadlines.

When the first volume of Dramacon was published by Tokyopop in 2005, many manga fans rejected works by non-Japanese creators. That has faded, Chmakova said. “I definitely feel more acceptance from the reader side,” she said. “I’ve seen quite a few people shed their preconceptions about OEL manga and become fans.”

One reason for the initial fan rejection of OEL manga was the weakness of some of the early properties, according Yen Press publishing director Kurt Hassler. “People who loved manga but had very little instruction were being given contracts early on, putting out full books without the kind of guidance you need on a professional level.” By contrast, he said, Japanese and Korean editors spend a lot of time working with their creators.